When I say I’m in recovery from my job, I’m only half joking about that.

My employer & the self-funded insurance market was a hell of a lot more fair & equitable than most of the major players in the fully insured health insurance sector that most of us are used to dealing with. There are things I miss about working in it, but definitely others I don’t.

Because we had to report results & answers to multiple entities (employers, insurance network partners, subscribers alike) & had to account for everything, there was more transparency than what most employers get from standard (or fully insured plans).

I see this even my own company insurance.

I learned how the health insurance market works overall over the past 3 or more years (still continue to) & I’m glad I did.

I’ve been in a better position to successfully navigate the bureaucratic end of transplant as it comes up than I would have been without that experience.

There are many things that I don’t agree with but understand about the industry itself.

In fairness, I also didn’t fully grasp what happened behind the scenes (or otherwise) until I was there doing the daily grind & saw it in action myself.

This lead came yesterday courtesy of my friend, DAP, a heart transplant recipient & fellow blogger.

Please read the latest e-news from the TRIO Action Center. They will then provide a link to a letter you can tailor & send in support of fighting Medicare on limiting transplant drugs & a few others that are now under protected status.

TRIO stands for Transplant Recipients International Organization. They are a nonprofit support group for the transplant community whose focus is on advocacy, awareness, support & education.

I do not qualify for Medicare as of yet, but I am concerned about this because private insurance often takes cues as to what it will or won’t cover from Medicaid & Medicare.

Blocking access to transplant drugs could prove lethal, especially anti-rejection medications. I’m not being dramatic when I say that.

I hope others will care enough to send their own letters in to contest this move for those they know who might need a transplant either now or in the future. Or to support those they know who have had transplant.

Thanks DAP for the alert on this. Hoping by posting this today we keep the pressure up on the issue & raise awareness.

I woke up to a pleasant surprise this morning. I have to thank my tweetchat & Twitter friend, Joe Babaian, for passing along this lead.

This release is very preliminary. That said, I found it interesting as I have always felt (as have others) that it wasn’t just the MTOR pathway alone that was at work in both of my diseases (LAM & TSC). This seems to confirm that theory.

I was hesitant to share this particular news before because I couldn’t find any real sources to verify what phase of clinical trial it was in. But I find this news highly promising. Yet, I’m trying not to get my hopes up too soon.

I do have a question I’d like to pose to some of my transplant friends, of whatever organ or whatever status. I know that many transplant recipients feel compelled to write their donor families, yet how many have felt the urge to write a farewell note to their original organ(s)?